Slurry thickness

Another important part of the overall system that has to be considered is the slurry layer between the wafer and the pad. This slurry fills the space and transports the abrasive particles, as well as mediate the chemical-mechanical interactions between the abrasive and the polished material, especially in metal polish systems. Several workers have looked at the slurry layer, especially in simplified systems, have found slurry thicknesses, experimentally in a range near 30-40 microns[10,l 1]. This is roughly the measured heights of pad asperities in standard semiconductor CMP applications[12]. The actual volume of this incompressible layer per unit area clearly plays a role in how the asperities interact with the wafer and pad, but has not yet been closely examined. 

The Stribeck curve shows that the friction force applied on the moving surface decreases with the relative velocity of the moving object in the presence of lubrication. This is because the thickness of the lubrication film between two objects increases with the relative velocity. In the presence of the abrasive slurry, the friction between the wafer and the pad decreased with the wafer velocity. It is believed that this is caused by increased slurry thickness between the wafer and the pad from higher wafer velocity. 

Figure 6-2 A typical casting head and a casting head for stabilizing sheet thickness. Manufacturing parameters (Vx Slurry flow speed, T Slurry thickness immediately after passing the blade, T Green sheet thickness after drying).

During storage, sediments decant with the water phase and deposit along with paraffins and asphalts in the bottoms of storage tanks as thick sludges or slurries (BS W). The interface between the water-sediment and the crude must be well monitored in order to avoid pumping the slurry into the refinery s operating units where it can cause serious upsets. 

Slurry or slip casting provides a relatively inexpensive way to fabricate unifonn-thickness, thin-wall, or large cross section shapes [4o, 44, 45, 46, 42 aiid 48]. For slip casting, a slurry is first poured into a porous mould. Capillary suction then draws the liquid from the slurry to fonn a higher solids content, close-packed, leather-hard cast on the inner surface of the mould. In a fixed time, a given wall thickness is fonned, after which the excess slurry is drained. 

This is used extensively for qualitative analysis, for it is a rapid process and requires simple apparatus. The adsorbent is usually a layer, about 0 23 mni. thick, of silica gel or alumina, with an inactive binder, e.g. calcium sulphate, to increase the strength of the layer.. A. i i slurry of the absorbent and methanol is commonly coated on glass plates (5 20 cm. or 20 x 20 cm.), but microscope... 

Assemble a 250 ml. three-necked flask, fitted with a stirrer, a reflux condenser and a dropping-funnel, as in Fig. 22(A) and (j), p. 43, or Fig. 23(c), p. 46 (or a two-necked flask, with the funnel fitted by a grooved cork (p. 255) to the top of the condenser). Place 40 ml. of ethanol in the flask, and then add 2-3 g. of sodium cut into small pieces. When all the sodium has dissolved, heat the stirred solution on the water-bath, and run in from the funnel 17 g. (17 ml.) of ethyl malonate and then (more slowly) io-2 g. (12 ml.) of mesityl oxide, the reaction-mixture meanwhile forming a thick slurry. Boil the stirred mixture under reflux for i hour, and then add a solution of 10 g. of sodium hydroxide in 50 ml. of water, and continue boiling the pale honey-coloured solution for ij hours more. 

The toluene solution from the previous step was treated with an ethanol solution of NaOEt (0.1 mol in 100 ml) at O C. When about a quarter of the solution had been added a thick precipitate formed and ether (100 ml) was added to maintain a fluid slurry. The remainder of the NaOEt was added and the slurry was stirred overnight. The solid was collected and w ashed with ether. It was then mixed with ether (200 ml) and 2NHC1 (75 ml) and shaken in a separatory funnel until the solid dissolved. The ether layer was washed with 2NHHC1 (2 X 50ml) and water and dried over MgS04. The solution was decolorized with Magnesol and evaporated to give the a-nitro ester as a red oil. 

The beater additive process starts with a very dilute aqueous slurry of fibrous nitrocellulose, kraft process woodpulp, and a stabilizer such as diphenylamine in a felting tank. A solution of resin such as poly(vinyl acetate) is added to the slurry of these components. The next step, felting, involves use of a fine metal screen in the shape of the inner dimensions of the final molded part. The screen is lowered into the slurry. A vacuum is appHed which causes the fibrous materials to be deposited on the form. The form is pulled out after a required thickness of felt is deposited, and the wet, low density felt removed from the form. The felt is then molded in a matched metal mold by the appHcation of heat and pressure which serves to remove moisture, set the resin, and press the fibers into near final shape (180—182). 

The pressure filter with tubular elements has also been used as a thickener, when the cake, backwashed by intermittent reverse flow, is redispersed by an agitator at the bottom of the vessel and discharged continuously as a slurry. In some cases the filter cake builds up to a critical thickness and then falls away without bio whack. 

An obvious method of increasing the filtration area in the vessel is to stack several plates on top of each other the plates are operated in parallel. One design, known as the plate filter, uses circular plates and a stack that can be removed as one assembly. This allows the stack to be replaced after the filtration period with a clean stack, and the filter can be put back into operation quickly. The filter consists of dimpled plates supporting perforated plates on which filter cloth or paper is placed. The space between the dimpled plates and the cloth is coimected to the filtrate outlet, which is either into the hoUow shaft or into the vessel, the other being used for the feed. When the feed is into the vessel, a scavenger plate may have to be fitted because the vessel will be full of unfiltered slurry at the end of the filtration period. This type of filter is available with filtration areas up to 25 m and cakes up to 50 mm thick. 

The vertical recessed plate automatic press, shown schematically in Figure 15 and described previously, is another example of a horizontal belt pressure filter. Cycle times ate short, typically between 10 and 30 minutes, and the operation is fully automated. The maximum cake thickness is about 35 mm washing and dewatering (by air displacement) of cakes is possible. Apphcations include treatment of mineral slurries, sugar, sewage sludge, and fillers like talc, clay, and whiting. 

After acid removal, scrap batteries are fed to a hammer mill in which they are ground to <5 cm particles. The ground components are fed to a conveyor and passed by a magnet to remove undesirable contamination. The lead scrap is then classified on a wet screen through which fine particles of lead sulfate and lead oxide pass, and the large oversize soHd particles are passed on to a hydrodynamic separator. The fine particles are settled to a thick slurry and the clarified washwater recirculated to the wet screen. 

The thickness of the tape is controUed by the sHp characteristics, the height of the doctor blade, the casting rate, and the pressure head of the sHp reservoir behind the doctor blade. SHp viscosities in the range of 1 5 Pa-s (10—50 P) are used to cast tapes at 5—100 cm/s. To achieve the desired strength and flexibUity in the green tape, tape casting slurries contain more binder than those used in sHp casting, as weU as a plasticizer to ensure flexibUity. 

Chlorination of thick lime slurry at 40—45°C forms large crystals of hemibasic calcium hypochlorite. The fine crystals obtained under 30°C are difficult to filter and since they invariably contain occluded mother Hquor, they have frequently been incorrectly referred to as monobasic or two-thirds basic (187,188). The isolated hemibasic crystals are suspended in a thin chlorinated lime slurry and chlorinated, producing laminar crystals of Ca(OCl)2 2H20, which are filtered and dried. Mother Hquors are treated with a lime slurry to recover the dibasic crystals, which are then suspended in a Hquor of lower CaCl2 content and chlorinated to form the neutral salt (188—190). 

The turbo-tray dryer can handle materials from thick slurries [1 million (N s)/m (100,000 cP) and over] to fine powders. It is not suitable for fibrous materials which mat or for doughy or tacky materials. Thin slurries can often be handled by recycle of dry product. Filter-press cakes are granulated before feeding. Thixotropic materials are red directly from a rotary filter by scoring the cake as it leaves the drum. Pastes can be extruded onto the top shelf and subjected to a hot blast of air to make them firm and free-ffowing after one revolution. 

Thick mixtures with viscosities greater than 10 Pa s are not readily mixed in conventional stirred pots with either propeller or turbine agitators. The high viscosity may be due to that of the matrix fluid itself, to a high slurry concentration, or to interactions between components. 

Cake Thickness Control Sometimes the rate of cake formation with bottom feed-type filters is rapid enough to create a cake too thick for subsequent operations. Cake thickness may be controlled by adjusting the bridge-blocks in the filter valve to decrease the effective submergence, by reducing the slurry level in the vat, and by reducing the vacuum level in the cake formation portion of the filter valve. If these measures are inadequate, it may be necessaiy to use a toploading filter. 

With any chemical treatment system, the main task is one of getting the chemical thoroughly mixed with the solids without degrading the floes which are formed. For those slurries that are relatively fluid, the chemical can frequently be added and mixed satisfactorily using a relatively wide spatula. However, for those thick, relatively viscous slurries, a power mixer will be required. In this case, the mixer should be stopped about one second after the last of the flocculant is added. Should this approach be required, it means that a suitably designed addition system must be supplied with the full-scale instaUation in order to do an effective job of flocculation. 

Remove the leaf from the slurry at the end of the cake-formation period and note the time. If the slurry is particularly thick and viscous, the leaf may be gently shaken to remove excess slurry and prevent the dam from scooping up extra material. Maintain the leaf in an upright position (cake surface on top) and elevated so that hquid within the drainage passages may pass to the receiver. Tilt and rotate the leaf to help the filtrate reach the drain outlet. Continue this dewatering period until ... 

External-Cake Tubular Filters Several filter designs are available with vertical tubes supported by a filtrate-chamber tube sheet in a vertical cylindrical vessel (Fig. 18-115). The tubes may be made of wire cloth porous ceramic, carbon, plastic, or metal or closely wound wire. The tubes may have a filter cloth on the outside. Frequently a filter-aid precoat will be applied to the tubes. The prefilt slurry is fed near the bottom of the vertical vessel. The filtrate passes from the outside to the inside of the tubes and into a filtrate chamber at the top or the bottom of the vessel. The sohds form a cake on the outside ofthe tubes with the filter area actually increasing as the cake builds up, partially compensating for the increased flow resistance of the thicker cake. The filtration cycle continues until the differential pressure reaches a specified level, or until about 25 mm (1 in) of cake thickness is obtainea... 

For a given slurry, the maximum filtration rate is determined by the minimum cake thickness which can be removed—the thinner the cake, the less the flow resistance and the higher the rate. The minimum thickness is about 6 mm (0.25 in) for relatively rigid or cohesive cakes of materials such as mineral concentrates or coarse precipitates like gypsum or calcium citrate. Sohds that form friable cakes composed of less cohesive materials such as salts or coal will usually require a cake thickness of 13 mm (0.5 in) or more. Filter cakes composed of fine precipitates such as pigments and magnesium hydroxide, which often produce cakes that crack or adhere to the medium, usually need a thickness of at least 10 mm (0.38 in). 

Rotation speeds to 40 r/min are possible with cakes typically 3 to 6 mm (0.12 to 0.24 in) thick. Filter sizes range from 930 cm to 19 m (1 to 207 ft") with 93 percent of the area active. The slurry is fed into a conical feed tank designed to prevent solids from settling without the use of mechanical agitators. The proper hquid level is maintained by overflow, and submergence ranges from 5 to 70 percent of the drum circumference. 

Construction is similar to that of other drum filters, except that vacuum is applied to the entire rotation. Before feeding slurry a precoat layer of filter aid or other suitable solids, 75 to 125 mm (3 to 5 in) thick, is apphed. The feed slurry is introduced and trapped in the outer surface of the precoat, where it is removed by a progressively advancing doctor knife which trims a thin layer of solids plus precoat (Fig. 18-126). The blade advances 0.05 to 0.2 mm (0.002 to 0.008 in) per revolution of the drum. When the precoat has been cut to a predefined minimum thickness, the filter is taken out of service, was ned, and freshly precoated. This turnaround time may be 1 to 3 h. 

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